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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2019

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Northern Iowa - 60, Drake - 58

THE MODERATOR: As advised, the victorious Panthers are with us. They have a date with the Bradley Braves tomorrow 1:00 Central time on CBS for the title and a trip to NCAA. We have head coach Ben Jacobson with us, Wyatt Lohaus, Trae Berhow. The format is the same. We're going to ask Ben to have a statement on the game and go to questions for all three Panthers.

BEN JACOBSON: Before I get to our game today, just want to thank Barry Hinson for everything that he's meant to our league and to the communities he coached in, to the kids that he coached. The way he represented himself and the passion that he had for this league, we all know what that was about. To see him do something that's pretty selfless on his part, just there's not a better person from a coaching standpoint.

You think about, when I first got here with Mack 18 years ago, Barry was one of the guys along with Dana Altman and Royce Waltman, those were the guys. That was my introduction to the Valley. I want to thank Barry for everything he's meant as a friend and to this league. We're obviously replacing him with some pretty good coaches. Dana at Missouri State and Walter at Evansville and what Darian's done this year. So there's some -- the league's in great hands.

With the injuries they've had and the way that he's continued to move that team forward and the way that they've played, to have another one happen right before you get here and another one happen yesterday, be in position to win again without those guys -- Darian and his staff and their players have just been tremendous all year long, and I want to congratulate those guys.

These two guys did it again. Wyatt was terrific. I'll let you get to the questions for these guys, but to hang in there today when we were playing against a team that's been on a role because of the way they're coached and the confidence they play with and the trust they have in each other, to be able to battle that off today, really proud of our whole team and really proud of these guys and the plays that -- because we had to make a lot of plays today. There wasn't as much in terms of creating stuff with our actions. We had to make a lot of plays and give these guys a ton of credit for that.

Q. Wyatt, can you take us through that final play driving the length of the court there.
WYATT LOHAUS: They scored pretty quickly. I saw there was eight or nine seconds, which gave me more than enough time to be able to dribble it down if I wanted to. From there, it was just kind of trying to pick up speed and get downhill. I think they kind of flexed out to our shooters. It kind of just left a driving lane open and just tried to push it down as hard as I can. Lane cleared up for me for the layup.

Q. How special of a game is this for you to lead your team back to the championship after all the adversity you went through to get back on the court and the success you had so early in your career, to be back the finals?
WYATT LOHAUS: It feels great. Everything we've battled through this year, and every experience I've had the five years that I've been here, to have a chance now to play to get back to the NCAA Tournament, it's a phenomenal feeling. I'm just really proud of this team.

Q. Wyatt, they made it tough on you guys in the first half. I mean, besides your shots going in, was there something else that you guys found in the second half that opened things up?
WYATT LOHAUS: We kind of just like sticking with our offense. With kind of what we've been running all year, getting guys moving, cutting, getting a lot of pace on things and kind of just turning the corner, getting downhill, and getting aggressive with it. So I think that stretch there, we had a number of different guys that were able to get in the lane, get good looks for us. So it was more just kind of sticking with the offense that we've been with here the last three or four weeks that we've been playing well.

Q. Ben, first of all, thank you for the comments about Barry. Secondly, you've been here so many times, and yet last year Loyola had such a magical run. Did you pick up anything at all, even though you've been doing this forever, from how they kind of walked through things last year?
BEN JACOBSON: Yeah, you mentioned Barry, that reminds me -- the only downside is I think that now makes me the oldest coach in the league, doesn't it?

Yeah, they were -- the level that they trusted each other, you could feel that. At the offensive end, the way they shared the ball, how connected they were defensively, their communication, their enthusiasm for each other -- you could feel that with their team, and I can feel it with these guys. Been very fortunate, Wyatt's been on a couple of those teams where you can feel that.

It was great for me to be able to experience that in terms of watching them, just how much they trusted each other and how much they were connected in everything that they did.

Q. Did you do anything different (no microphone)?
BEN JACOBSON: I don't know that we did anything different. What we're doing offensively is very different, and it's similar to -- there are parts of it that are similar to what Loyola is doing. Our change wasn't specifically because of Loyola, but it helped me, as our head coach, having played against it, having watched it work so well. And it promotes passing. It promotes moving. It promotes teamwork. So me being able to see that and watch that has helped me as we've implemented our stuff.

But I think more than anything, just a great reminder, for me as a head coach, how important those things are. If you can find a way to get your guys to trust each other and take ownership, lead each other, have enthusiasm for what they're doing, Loyola played in the Final Four because of it. It wasn't because they were the best team in every game they played. They were really good. They weren't the best team every night, but they played in the Final Four because of those things.

Q. Trae, for you, what's been special about this journey to the championship game with your first year at UNI? What have you really enjoyed about this team and being a part of this ride?
TRAE BERHOW: I guess the team staying together is fun. It's a really good connection that we've had, to trust in one another, and everyone going together at it. That's one big thing.

Q. Ben, what was Drake doing that it seemed to make it difficult for so long in this game for you guys to get downhill? That's something you talked about quite a bit with the success the offense had over the last ten games of the season. Until the latter moments of the game, they kept you out of the middle.
BEN JACOBSON: Yeah, they've done a good job all year. They did a good job in the two times that we played them. Their understanding of what they want to get done, they were able to get in and plug some of those gaps or some of the places we've been able -- as Wyatt said, the last three weeks, our offense has been really good. They were able to take some of that away through just the way they designed their defense in this game.

And then they had, due to the injuries, which I'm certain they would rather have had McGlynn healthy, of course, and had him play 35 minutes tonight, but because of the injuries they were able to do things just a little bit different. They defended a little bit different than they would have had McGlynn been in there, and they did a better job of that than we did with our offense and moving our guys around.

These guys have continued to do a terrific job, and that's on me and my staff to keep finding ways. We came out of a time-out, and we got moving, and we were down six. We got into really what we've been running, but the guys, we talked to them about pace and passing, and we went out and scored and were able to get the lead, and we were able to get in a really good position until Luke caught Murphy with the elbow, and we had to go back and play. We'd gotten in a really good spot, but that was our best stretch of offense. There weren't many of them today.

Q. Trae, you had a bit of a dry spell coming into this tournament, but you've been electric the last couple of days. Talk about how your offense has awoken the last couple of days.
TRAE BERHOW: I guess we did have a dry spell, didn't shoot as well. But it's playoff time, you've got to give it what you got. Give your heart on everything. Got to work harder. Me and Croft were shooting in the gym a lot more after the dry spell, getting the shot back together and just making sure the form was right, getting the confidence back up in the gym. Right when the playoff hits, I wasn't short on confidence. I knew the first shot was going to go in. I was just going to get it right away.

Q. Ben, you've seen a lot of players have big plays and big games this tournament. How would you assess what Wyatt was able to do, in particular, that second half?
BEN JACOBSON: I would say both games so far, he's been as good as anybody that we've had in this tournament. In the two games so far. I love it. I love it. He's put a lot into this.

Q. Ben, obviously, you're getting a little emotional there as you talk about Wyatt. What would you say just about the fact that he's playing potentially the last games of his career right now and he's playing his best and how that's possible. What about that makes you emotional?
BEN JACOBSON: We'll get to those things when -- we're going to game plan and get ready for Bradley now. He's just put a lot into this. He's put a ton into this, and I just love seeing when a guy gets rewarded for that, okay? That's -- when I think about the last two games, he's getting rewarded for hard work, and I love seeing that. Now we'll get ready for Bradley. We're going to get ready for Bradley.

Q. If I could ask one last one about the flagrant elbow, but then you guys didn't shoot free throws on the Murphy foul. What did they say to you? How did they explain that?
BEN JACOBSON: It had gotten down, and we had scored the basket. They had gotten called for the foul when we scored, so we were going to take the ball out again after that basket. On that stoppage of play, they went to the monitor to check what had happened on the rebound. They saw on the replay that Luke had caught Murphy. So they then have to go to that point and resume from there. So our basket still counts. Drake's player still gets the foul. They don't take the foul off. He still gets it. But they have to go back to the point where what they found on the monitor with flagrant one on Luke. So they shoot the two free throws for the flagrant one, and they get the basketball because of the flagrant one. They have to go back to that point.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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